To mark the 50th anniversary of its mainframe computer system, technology giant IBM has announced the opening of Linux and cloud innovation hubs in South Africa and Kenya.

Speaking at a media briefing on Thursday, IBM country manager Abraham Thomas (pictured) said Africa is an important market and the company plans to continue making big investments on the continent.

Thomas was speaking on the back of the launch of IBM’s mainframe Linux and cloud innovation hub to be located at the IBM client centre in Johannesburg, South Africa.

He explained that the innovation hub is expected to help showcase IBM’s mainframe technology and capability to universities, government departments, ministries, banks and private organisations from various sectors in the country.

The hub is also planned to help clients adopt big data and cloud computing technology, he stated.

Launched 50 years ago IBM's mainframe business consists of hardware, software and technology services.

The Mainframe technology systems are used by banking institutions to run their transactions with 92 of the top 100 banks using mainframe, according Deon Newman, vice president of System Z at IBM.

In South Africa IBM has worked with clients that include banking institution First National Bank (FNB) and ICT provider, Business Connexion.

FNB has been using IBM’s mainframe technology systems for the past 30 years.

Newman said today almost 100% of the world's credit card transactions run on mainframe systems.

"Almost 30 billion business transactions pass through mainframe per day.

“And its clear that in a continent like Africa, mainframe technology will be a catalyst and an enabler for growth and progress, “ said Newman.

Newman also stated that IBM has launched a similar innovation hub in Kenya on Tuesday. The East African nation and South Africa join a network of 40 countries around the world to have a mainframe innovation centre.

He concluded by saying that their mainframe technology continues to be popular as IBM has added 272 mainframe clients over the last two years.